802.11ac WiFi is now found in many routers and devices, and the Wi-Fi alliance has so far certified close to 3,000 “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac” products. I understand that certification is not mandatory, but if you want to make sure a device works well, the certification at least means the devices have been tested for interoperability, security and application specific protocols, and found to work in a satisfactory manner. Now the Wi-Fi alliance has announced Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac Wave 2 certification program with the following new requirements: MU-MIMO (Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output) in order to send data to multiple devices at once to improve overall network efficiency and throughput 160 MHz channels support (not only 80 MHz) potentially doubling transmission speeds Four spatial streams instead of just three spatial streams. Extended 5 GHz channel support by adding more channels in the 5 GHz to reduce interference and congestion. Currently the following WiFi SoCs, routers, and reference designs are said to …

Many electrical appliances such as TVs, air conditioners, heaters, and so on are still controlled using an infrared remote control, but as more and more people are getting used to their smartphone to control pretty much everything, devices such as Xiaomi Mi Smart Remote Center that allows to control IR appliances with ANdroid or iOS mobile are starting to come to market. However during my Smart Remote Center review, I noticed that the app was only available in Chinese, and that it was not quite able to perform all the tasks I wanted (e.g. multiple IR codes programming). There’s now a cheaper and small device available in the form of Broadlink RM Mini 3 “Black Bean” that sells for just $9.88 including shipping, and whose app supports not only Chinese, but also English, Russian, Japanese, and other languages. Broadlink RM mini 3 specifications: WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n @ 2.4 GHz IR – 38 KHz frequency; omni directional (6 transmitters); 12 …

Amazon has just launched AWS (Amazon Web Services) IoT (Beta), a cloud platform that lets connected devices securely interact with cloud applications and other IoT devices. As pasrt of the announcement, they also released AWS IoT SDK that comes in three flavors: Embedded C SDK for C-based platforms such as Linux, RTOS, with variants for OpenSSL and mbed TLS. JavaScript SDK in Node.js Arduino Yún SDK. Ten started kits are currently officially supported by AWT IoT, many of them being existing platforms such as LinkIt One, BeagleBone Green, Intel Edison, or TI LaunchPad CC3200, with several of these kits including SeeedStudio’s Grove modules. One of the kits that’s completely new, at least to me, is Marvell EZ-Connect MW302 IoT Starter Kit which include a mini USB to USB cable, and Marvell 88MW302 development board with the following (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Marvell EZ-Connect MW302 ARM Cortex-M4 WiSoC with 512KB SRAM Storage – No info Connectivity – 2.4Ghz b/g/n Wi-Fi (built-in …